In some of the earliest accounts of Blackbeard's logs, he instructed his crew to steer away from certain "enchanted" waters for fear of Merfolk, which Blackbeard and many members of the crew reported seeing and documenting. These sightings were often recounted and shared by sailors and pirates who believed the mermaids were bad luck and would bewitch them into giving up their gold and then drag them to the bottom of the seas.
In February 2012, construction on two reservoirs in Zimbabwe stopped when employees refused to work there, claiming that mermaids had hounded them away from the sites.
After dozens of people reported seeing a mermaid leaping out of the water and doing aerial tricks before returning to the depths, the town of Kiryat Yamin in Israel offered a prize of $1 million for anyone who could prove the existence of a mermaid off its coast. This was in 2009.
The prize has not yet been awarded.
Acrylic and ink on paper.
